Popular Science Launches First Magazine App for Android Tablet

While the iPad gets all of the press love lately, Samsung has had
success with its rival 7-inch Android Galaxy Tab. The new tablet ably
runs all of the existing smartphone apps in the Android Marketplace, so
the device came to market with over 100,000 programs supporting it. Nevertheless,
there are very few apps designed specifically for the format, which is
twice the size of most Android phones but half the size of the iPad.
Bonnier Corp. is the first major magazine company we have seen venture
into the Android tablet field with its newly launched special issue, Popular Science+ Top Tech 2010.
Designed specifically for the 7-inch screen, Bonnier’s new app
reorients the Mag+ engine it used on iPad magazine and special issue
apps for the smaller sca.

The special issue includes 100 innovative products from the year in 11
easily-browsed categories. Winning items get full-screen animations that
show off the tech innovation. Bonnier says that it employed the
Android’s pop-up menu function to house the table of contents. The
Android app uses the same display conventions as the iPad version of
Mag+ titles: tapping the screen removes the text to allow the background
image to show unimpeded and full screen. According to Bonnier deputy
director of R&D Mike Haney, the app for Galaxy Tab was an
opportunity for the publisher to test new layouts on the 7-inch screen.

A number of Android, Windows 7 and Blackberry-powered tablets will be
coming to market in the next few months in this smaller format. Says
Haney: “Although the smaller space requires more simplified layouts, we
found that the horizontal orientation of the widescreen display gave us
the best canvas for easy-to-read, flowing text and big, beautiful images
without the screen ever feeling cluttered—preserving that immersive,
relaxing magazine experience.”

As magazines try to capitalize on the digital tablet craze, they will be
chasing a fragmenting market as multiple operating systems and screen
dimensions compete for consumers’ market share. A key challenge for
publishers will be creating technology platforms and work flows that can
support multiple devices at reasonable cost.